Resurrecting/Restoring a 12x20 Folmer & Schwing

[cdholden]

I picked up a 12&20 a few months ago. It's in pretty good shape, but the bellows were shot. It was windy and cold the day I pulled the frames off back in January. I sent them off to Western Bellows in February, and put the camera away until I had more free time to clean it up. It's collected a lot of dirt/dust in it's idle time before I acquired it. It's now on the far side of April, and I've still not cleaned it up yet. The bellows came back last week and are ready to be installed.
The wood doesn't need to be refinished, as I said, it's in really good shape considering its age. I would like to clean it up with something... maybe murphy soap, and follow up with linseed oil, tung oil, etc. Has anyone worked with maintaining (not refinishing) an existing finish on a Folmer & Schwing?
For anyone who has had successful results: Can you offer any tips?
Thanks.
Chris

 

[John Kasaian]

I like Butcher's Wax, carnuba or pure Bee's Wax for maintaining wood that is already fiished. Linseed or tung is good if you are sanding her all the way down to bare wood and are serious about piss coats and sanding in between coats, but I think my original F&S has either a shellac or varnish finish (its been awhile since I've had her out!)
For cleaning, Murphys will certainly do the job but if it is just very dusty, Lemon Pledge on a cloth diaper does a wonderful job with less mess.

 

[pgomena]

A little furniture was or similar paste wax will do the job. I touched up an old Korona 8x10's checkered varnish/shellac/whatever by lightly spreading on a very thin coat of Daly's ProFin oil finish with a soft cloth. Filled in the checkering and made it glow.

Peter Gomena

 

[Shadowtracker]

Lemon Oil.... best stuff for gently cleaning wood. Can take some time but does no damage to it what-so-ever. It will put life back into the wood. After that, furniture or paste wax. I have cleaned gun stocks with this; at least two of which were from WWII and they look great.